Judge Ural Glanville has called on the media not to record for the rest of the third day of Young Thug's YSL Rico trial in Georgia after a video accidentally showed the jury.
Before bringing the jurors in, the judge addressed the court about "security issues" after an "inadvertent" recording of the jury was published by sites like No Jumper and began circulating online. He then asked if the media would be okay with forgoing recording going forward. "You're welcome to do the audio," he then said. It's unclear whether the livestream, which is operated by a local station in Atlanta and utilized by media outlets such as Law & Crime Network and Court TV, will be allowed to continue or not.
The meeting with attorneys was called by Glanville during the third day of the trial, although initially, the cause of the meeting was unclear. Legal affairs journalist Meghann Cuniff reported that news aggregator accounts reported that some people were identifying jury members in the trial, which would be a breach of security.
Cuniff then reported that it's possible alternate jurors could replace the jurors whose identities were breached.
Young Thug was among those accused in a 2022 indictment of violating the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act. Days before the trial started after a long series of delays, Judge Glanville said lyrics could be used as evidence. 300 Entertainment's Kevin Liles and Atlantic Records' Julie Greenwald launched a petition against the use of artistic expression as evidence, garnering over 93,000 signatures.
“This isn’t just about me or YSL,” Thug said in June 2022 in support of the petition. “I always use my music as a form of artistic expression and now I see that Black artists and rappers don’t have that, you know, freedom. Everybody please sign the Protect Black Art petition and keep praying for us. I love you all.”
During the first day of the trial, Thug's attorney Brian Steel criticized the prosecution's opening remarks, which he called "intentional misconduct" that could be the grounds for a mistrial. "Three weeks ago, you ordered the parties to share all of their displays and opening statement to the others so we don’t have to have these interruptions. I did that," Steel said. "The state shared with me four attachments. That’s all they had. That’s what I got." His motion was denied.
